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29. Rally Argentina 2009
Sebastien Loeb looks to have already taken the title after only 5 rounds out of 12. He is still well on his way to winning all 12 races. He won the rally from team-mate Dani Sordo and Henning Solberg took third after the retirements of both Mikko Hirvonen and Petter Solberg. Day 1 On day 1 Dani Sordo led the way in his Citroen C4 ahead of Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb. Jari-Matti Latvala dropped down to sixth place after a problem near the end of the day. Petter Solberg and brother Henning were 4th and 5th respectively after the fin's problems. Matthew Wilson and Federico Villagra completed the top 8. In PWRC, local heroes Gabriel Pozzo and Marcus Ligato took charge and filled 2 of the top 3 places. Only Nasser-Al Attiyah could match them and he ended the day a respectable 2nd place, while Toshi Arai held fourth in his Subaru Impreza. In JWRC, Alessandro Bettega led by over 3 minutes from the only other 2 runners on this rally, Michel Kosciuszko and Aaron Burkart. Day 2 Day 2 however saw the fightback of Sebastien Loeb and he took the lead on the 2nd stage of the day, El Condor. But Sordo slipped to 3rd behind Loeb and Hirvonen and then decided to back off. Hirvonen though retired with mechanical failures on stage 16, moving Jari-Matti Latvala up to third. Petter Solberg and Henning Solberg kept their fourth and fifth places throughout the day, but was still keeping their eyes open for a podium. PWRC though saw the end of Martin Prokop's weekend before the day even began after he was excluded by the stewards. Gabriel Pozzo also hit problems and retired, allowing Al-Attiyah to move into the lead, ahead of local boy Marcus Ligato and Toshi Arai. Bettega's reign in JWRC ended when he slipped to 3rd allowing Kosciuszko to lead ahead of Burkart. Day 3 Day 3 however started with Latvala's chance for a podium ending after he lost 8 minutes on the opening stage. Petter Solberg was then in third but on the very next stage he picked up turbo failure and had to retire from the rally, allowing Henning Solberg to finish third. Federico Villagra picked up his best ever result with 4th place ahead of Matthew Wilson, Latvala and Sebastien Ogier. But Sebastien Loeb comfortably won. It is now 5 out of 5 wins for Loeb and already a sixth title looks firmly in his grasp. Sordo took second; yet another one-two for the Citroen team. Nasser Al-Attiyah won in JWRC and got a world drivers point as well, meaning he moved into second place in the championship behind Armundo Araujo. Ligato and Arai took second and third. Kosciuszko managed to win in JWRC, finishing well ahead of Aaron Burkart and Alessandro Bettega. WRC Results 1 Sebastien Loeb 3.57.40.3 2 Dani Sordo +1.13.1 3 Henning Solberg +4.04.1 4 Federico Villagra +5.59.7 5 Matthew Wilson +6.10.9 6 Jari-Matti Latvala +9.50.0 7 Sebastien Ogier +20.55.1 8 Nasser Al-Attiyah +23.11.6 Drivers Championship 1 Sebastien Loeb 50 pts 2 Dani Sordo 31 pts 3 Mikko Hirvonen 30 pts 4 Henning Solberg 20 pts 5 Petter Solberg 14 pts 6 Matthew Wilson 12 pts 7 Jari-Matti Latvala 9 pts 7 Federico Villagra 9 pts Manufacterers Championship 1 Total-Citroen 82 pts 2 BP Ford 43 pts 3 Stobart Ford 37 pts 4 Citroen Juniors 13 pts 5 Munchi's Ford 12 pts PWRC Championship 1 Armindo Araujo 23 pts 2 Nasser Al-Attiyah 21 pts 3 Patrik Sandell 20 pts 4 Eyvind Brynildsen 18 pts 5 Martin Prokop 14 pts 6 Toshi Arai 11 pts 7 Marcus Ligato 8 pts 8 Andis Neiksans 8 pts JWRC Championship 1 Michal Kosciuszko 28 pts 2 Aaron Burkart 24 pts 3 Martin Prokop 18 pts 4 Kevin Abbring 12 pts 5 Alessandro Bettega 10 pts 6 Simone Bertolotti 9 pts 7 Luca Griotti 8 pts 8 Hans Weijs Jr 6 pts